We’ve been all about logging and metadata over the last few weeks!
First Cuts has just had a substantial update: we’ve added a new module to it that makes it easy to use Microsoft Excel to do your log notes. The new module is called exceLogger and it came about because of a suggestion from a First Cuts user. The advantage is that, even if you’ve already captured your clips, exceLogger will read your log notes out of the Excel spreadsheet and add them to the logging fields in your Final Cut Pro project.
The update is free for First Cuts owners.
We liked the idea of exceLogger so much that we created a stand-alone application called exceLogger for FCP – you can read more about it here.
The second new piece of software is something completely different. Final Cut Pro back at version 5.1.2 introduced support for QuickTime metadata, and more cameras and formats have been adding metadata to their media files. (Philip wrote about this metadata at his blog.) The problem is that you can’t see this QuickTime metadata in Final Cut Pro’s browser view – it’s hidden.
That’s why we created mini Metadata Explorer (miniME for short): export your clips from Final Cut Pro as an XML file, and open it in miniME. The spreadsheet view fills in with your clip names and columns of QuickTime metadata.
The free version of miniME allows you to save this metadata out to an Excel spreadsheet. But if you buy a serial number you also get the option to add this hidden metadata into the Final Cut Pro logging fields of your choice. There’s more information here.